Another Xbox 180: Always-on Kinect no longer mandatory

In what is hilarious, though completely expected news (by now), Microsoft has pulled yet another Xbox 180: the mandatory, always plugged-in Kinect is no longer mandatory. You can shove that thing in a drawer if you want, and never feel weird when you aren’t wearing pants in your living room like we all know you do.

Microsoft already stated that the Kinect doesn’t have to be powered on, but at that time, it was still required to be plugged into the Xbox One. This, of course, remains a little nerve-racking. The paranoid among us suggest that the Kinect never actually shuts off, and Microsoft could spy on us in our undies. Speaking with IGN, Xbox vice president Marc Whitten confirmed that the Xbox One will no longer require the Kinect to be plugged into the console. Yes, another Xbox One reversal.

If you end up living in a constant cycle of shutting off and turning on your Kinect and simply can’t remember what state the sensor is in anymore, the Xbox One will prompt you to turn on the Kinect whenever a feature requires it.

So, since the Xbox One’s reveal not too long ago, Microsoft has reversed just about every single policy of which the public wasn’t fond. From the always-online policy, to not allowing developers to self-publish titles, and now the mandatory Kinect, Microsoft pulled so many 180s we aren’t quite sure which direction the company is facing anymore.